Mental Health and Stigma

Term Paper # 101669

Communication > Mass Media
Medical and Health > Nursing
Psychology > Disorders

This paper explores mental health and stigma and the implications for health promotion.

1,207 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how stigma associated with mental illness leads to social isolation, which hinders both treatment and recovery and harms the family of the patient too. The paper discusses how the root of the stigma observed in the population is found in the mass media, which continues to perpetrate and reinforce perceptions of mental illness. The paper looks at the nurse's role that must be a response to the patient's and family's needs for support, advocacy and health teaching. The paper maintains that health teaching is not nearly adequate; there must also be a coordinated campaign of health promotion.

Outline:
Introduction
Stigma
Social Isolation
Sources of Stigma
Program of Health Teaching and Health Promotion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Patients with various forms of mental illness regularly visit outpatient clinics to be administered doses of lithium for bipolar disorder and medication such as Loxapine, Halperidol,and Thyxothicene for schizophrenia. Because of the influence of the biomedical model, the attending psychiatrists ask these patients how they are coping but generally ignore the responses because of the focus on symptoms. Meanwhile, two major issues interfere with patients' adherence to treatment or even with initial seeking of treatment. Stigma and the subsequent social isolation that results from it are not being addressed in these mental health clinics."

Sample of Sources Used:

Deegan, P. (1993). Recovering our sense of value after being labeled. Psychosocial Nursing, 31 (4), 7-11.
Feeney Mahoney, D. & Cloutterbuck, J. (2005). African, American, Chinese, and Latino family caregivers' impressions of the onset and diagnosis of dementia. The Gerontologist, 45 (6), 783-793.
Kadri, N. & Manoudi, F. (2004). Stigma impact on Moroccan families of patient with schizophrenia. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49 (9), 625-629.
Kenny, J. (2001). Cloaked in secrecy and shame. Canadian Nurse, 97 (1), 20-24.
Schumacher, M., P. Corrigan & Dejong, T. (2003). Examining cues that signal mental illness stigma. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 22 (5), 467-472.